Coronavirus update
- Pupils at Tylers Green Middle School are being asked to write about their experiences during the past year. Their work will eventually be published as a book and sold to raise funds for the school, but it will also have historical value when people look back on the period of the pandemic. The project is part of a World Book Day initiative.
- Every room at Manor Farm Junior School has been treated with anti-viral spray this week in preparation for the children’s return on Monday. There will be staggered starts and ends to the school day and staggered breaks and lunchtimes.The school’s breakfast club also resumes on Monday.
- Arriva Buses is running a special school/college students service from Penn starting from Monday. The service, numbered S31, is for students only and will run from Penn to Marlow Hill at 7.35am, returning from Marlow Hill at 4pm. A service for students living in Wycombe but attending schools in this area will leave Wycombe at 7.55 for Penn and return at 3.20 from Penn. Pupils are being asked to sit with students from their own school and everyone over the age of 11 must wear a face mask.
- Penn Motor Company is reopening for servicing on Monday after closure during the current lockdown. It has been open for MoTs since Wednesday.
- According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, Tylers Green was the only one of 99 districts in Buckinghamshire not to have recorded any deaths directly from Covid 19 between March last year and the end of January this year. The figures are based on those where the underlying cause of death was Covid and does not include those who may have had the virus but died of other causes. In the area covering Penn, Holmer Green and Knotty Green the number of deaths specifically due to Covid is 12 and in Hazlemere eight.
- Latest confirmed cases show there were just three new cases in the Penn/Holmer Green/Knotty Green area in the week to last Saturday compared with 11 the week before. In Tylers Green there were four compared to nine and in Hazlemere a slight increase of eight compared to six. Unconfirmed figures for yesterday show there were just 44 new cases in the whole of Buckinghamshire.
- Twenty two per cent of patients in Wycombe, Amersham and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals on Monday, 1 March were Covid patients, compared to 39 per cent on 1 February.
- The Pyramid Pharmacy in Beaconsfield became the latest local Covid vaccination centre this week. Unpaid carers in the county are being urged to ensure they are registered with the Carers Bucks organisation to ensure they can be amongst the next batch of people to receive a Covid vaccination.
Increased passes in delayed 11 plus
A HIGHER percentage of children passed last year’s delayed 11 plus examination than the year before. The test was postponed from September to November last year because of the pandemic which resulted in 1,614 out of 5,804 children in Buckinghamshire – 28 per cent – qualifying for grammar schools. In the previous year 1,431 children out of 5,673 – 25 per cent – passed the test.
Assessments of how children’s education has been affected by the current lockdown will be made in the coming weeks before any decisions are made on whether to change the date of this year’s 11 plus.
Big increase in dog attacks on sheep
POLICE and farmers launched a campaign this week to try to reduce the number of dog attacks on livestock in local fields. The police said such attacks were the most reported in the Chiltern and South Bucks area during the past year because more people have been walking in the countryside with their pets. Extra signs are to be placed on fences alongside fields containing cattle and sheep. As a last resort farmers are legally entitled to shoot dogs caught worrying sheep and lambs.
Farewell Alan
Alan J. Brindle, who toured the village for many years with this handcart sharpening knives, scissors and any number of blades, has died. There’s delightful footage of him plying his trade in the village in 1976 and talking to the BBC’s Martin Young from the Nationwide programme which you should be able to see here: https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/posts/816431262063239?comment_id=827320174307681
If only someone offered a similar service today.
Penn witnesses crime thriller
THE BBC’s Silent Witness was back filming in the area this week, using the former Penn School site as a production base. The new series was due to be shown this winter but filming has been delayed due to the pandemic so it will be on screens later this year. There will be local scenes to look out for because the production team have paid us several visits over the past few weeks, filming in Penn, Hazlemere golf course and Winchmore Hill.
The series is Britain’s longest running TV crime drama. This will be its 24th series and a further series enabling it to celebrate 25 years has already been commissioned .
Local news
More housing in Hammersley Lane – Nicholas King Homes has been given permission to build five houses on the site of the former Penn Feeds/Penn Equine site at Chiltern Yard in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green. In a construction traffic management plan submitted this week the company say building work will take place between 7.30am and 5pm and construction vehicles will access the site between 9.30am and 3.30pm.
Burglary charge – Gary Atkins, 43, of Skimmers Close, Holmer Green has been charged with burglary and stealing from a motor vehicle at a house in Oaktree Close, Tylers Green on Sunday 21 February. He is due to appear in court next month.
Pub’s plans – The Royal Standard of England pub in Forty Green has submitted an amended plan to extend the pub to allow for staff accommodation and an external staircase.
Regional news
New town centre – A half a billion pound redevelopment of Maidenhead town centre was approved by the council this week. It involves a mix of shops, offices, restaurants and homes.
Fly-tipping leaps – Cases of fly-tipping have soared during the pandemic says a report to Buckinghamshire Council next week, with an estimated 60 per cent of it dumped by fly-tippers coming from outside the county, notably west London and Slough.
Supermarket battle – Aldi said it wants to open a supermarket on the former garage site virtually opposite Tesco in Amersham.
Pollution fine – Thames Water was fined £2.3m after admitting polluting a stream at Fawley Court near Henley with sewage which killed all the fish in the stream. Machines at a water treatment plant were found to be faulty.
Kop Hill back – The veteran car event, the Kop Hill Run, confirmed it will be holding its event at Princes Risborough in September and is selling ‘early-bird’ tickets.
New tube trains – The Piccadilly Line has announced these walk-through air-conditioned tube trains will replace its current 50-year-old fleet by 2025.
This blog is being updated weekly during lockdown. Next update due Friday 12 March.